Pierre Curie (d. 1906)

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Biography

Pierre Curie was a French physicist and chemist, and a pioneer in crystallography and magnetism. He shared one half of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, for their work on radioactivity. With their win, the Curies became the first married couple to win a Nobel Prize, launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.

In Their Own Words (1)

If one leaves a wooden or cardboard box containing a small glass ampulla with several centigrams of a radium salt in one’s pocket for a few hours, one will feel absolutely nothing. But 15 days afterwards a redness will appear on the epidermis, and then a sore which will be very difficult to heal. A more prolonged action could lead to paralysis and death. Radium must be transported in a thick box of lead. It can even be thought that radium could become very dangerous in criminal hands, and here the question can be raised whether mankind benefits from knowing the secrets of Nature, whether it is ready to profit from it or whether this knowledge will not be harmful for it. The example of the discoveries of Nobel is characteristic, as powerful explosives have enabled man to do wonderful work. They are also a terrible means of destruction in the hands of great criminals who are leading the peoples towards war. I am one of those who believe with Nobel that mankind will derive more good than harm from the new discoveries.

1905

Timeline

The story of Pierre Curie, told in moments.

1880 Event

Discovers piezoelectricity with his brother Jacques. They demonstrate that compressing certain crystals generates an electric charge. It sounds obscure. It'll later make quartz watches, sonar, and ultrasound possible.

Did you know piezoelectricity would change the world when you discovered it? What was it like working alongside your brother Jacques? How do you feel about your 'obscure' discovery enabling sonar and ultrasound?

1895 Life

Marries Marie Sklodowska. Their wedding gift to each other: a pair of bicycles. No ring, no church ceremony. They honeymoon by cycling through the French countryside.

Why bicycles as a wedding gift instead of rings? What did you see in Marie Sklodowska that others didn't? Was your partnership scientific before it was romantic?

1898 Event

He and Marie announce the isolation of radium before the French Academy of Sciences. They've been processing tons of pitchblende ore by hand in a leaky shed. Marie's lab notebooks remain so radioactive they're stored in lead-lined boxes.

What was it like processing tons of ore by hand in a leaky shed? Did you and Marie ever worry about the radiation? Which of you was more driven -- you or Marie?

1903 Event

Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics with Marie and Henri Becquerel. The committee originally plans to honor only Becquerel and Pierre. Pierre insists Marie be included. She becomes the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Why did you insist Marie be included in the Nobel Prize? Did the committee's initial exclusion of her anger you? What would the prize have meant without her name on it?

1906 Death

Killed instantly on Rue Dauphine in Paris when he slips in the rain and his head is crushed under the wheel of a horse-drawn cart. He's 46. Marie receives his bloodstained clothing at home. She writes in her diary: "It is the end of everything, everything, everything."

Did you have any warning that morning on Rue Dauphine? What would you tell Marie if you had one more moment? Does it trouble you that your death overshadowed your life's work?

Artifacts (1)

Les nouvelles substances radioactives et les rayons qu'elles émettent / par P. Curie et Mme. Curie

Curie, Pierre 1859-1906

1900 · 36 p. : ill. ; 26 cm

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